It promises to be a match-defining battle. Akeal Hosein, the West Indies’ ultra modernist Twenty20 spin bowler, versus Phil Salt and Jos Buttler in the powerplay could be the deciding phase of England’s opening Super Eights game.
Meet Hosein, the 31 year-old Trinidadian who survived the gangland crime of East Port of Spain to become an integral part of the West Indies World Cup challenge with his unique combination of left arm spin sent down with an inswing bowlers’ swerve through the air.
He has been the powerplay master, opening the bowling in all five of West Indies’s wins so far taking six of his nine wickets in the opening six overs and bowling at an economy rate of four runs an over across the tournament so far.
He varies his line on the crease, his arm ball does most of the damage swinging through the air with more drift than usual for a spinner, and he can turn it too. He slides it into the right handers, away from the left handers and can beat both edges of the bat. He has dismissed batsmen by luring them to play down the wrong line.
No team has managed to take him apart and he gives West Indies control in the powerplay when they are allowed fewer fielders to defend the boundary, in turn buying them cheap overs.
It could be a volatile time to bowl for a spinner but Hosein, with his unusual style and accuracy, is emerging as a star of the tournament and it will be a no brainer against England’s two right handed openers and nos 3 and 4 if he breaks through. Promoting Moeen Ali if that happens would break up that run of righties.
Hosein’s very presence in the West Indies team is a great story too. He grew up in the tough neighborhood of Laventville and told ESPN Cricinfo before the World Cup how he learned to live with gangland gun crime. “It’s just there in your face. Everything is right around you,” he said. “I remember one time I was just sitting outside with a couple of my friends. And there was this red light on my friend’s T-shirt. We were trying to move it – like, we thought it was something you could dust off, and then when we came to our senses that it was a laser (from a gun sight) on his shirt, we all ran off.”
Spinner’s great escape
He also revealed how cricket saved him once when he was held up by a gang member from another neighbourhood who threatened to kill him when he could not pay him any money. Another gangster intervened by warning against touching the local cricket star they nicknamed Lara. “Because they knew, everyone knew, I was a cricketer,” said Hosein.
West Indies spinner Sunil Narine, also from Trinidad, took him under his wing giving Hosein somewhere to live and working on his bowling. Another big influence was England’s current assistant coach, Kieron Pollard. “I’ve been doing lots of work here. We had a camp before we came into the World Cup, but I’ve been doing lots of work with Sunil [Narine] as well,” said Hosein. “He’s a very close friend of mine. So, it’s just about constant work. And especially when you start getting success your way, we know the game has evolved so much that guys are going to be reading about you. Guys are going to be doing their homework. So, you always have to try and stay one step ahead. So, it’s constant work for me.”
How will Salt and Buttler play him? Bat on leg stump and hit it back from where it came or off stump and whip it? Sounds easy in principle, less so in practice.
Salt is the six hitter who has not really stayed in long enough to affect a game. He has only faced 34 balls but hit one in three for a boundary. Buttler made a four ball duck against Namibia but led the run rate onslaught against Oman and looked good playing Australia. If one of those two clicks on the best batting track of the World Cup it could be game over.
It will feel like the World Cup really starts here. England play in front of a home crowd, which will take some getting used to because they are accustomed to thousands of England fans in the Caribbean, and face the reality of stiff opposition after two wins against the minnows. West Indies are a brutal T20 batting line up with an attack that covers all bases and there is no respite with South Africa to follow on Friday, again at the Daren Sammy Stadium.
Sammy, the West Indies coach twice won the T20 World Cup as a player, broke England hearts in the 2016 final when he captained West Indies to victory and has built a similar team this time with Hosein performing the same role powerplay as Samuel Badree eight years ago.
West Indies won all four of their group games and marmalised Afghanistan on Monday night, making the highest total of the World Cup on this pitch – 218m with Nicholas Pooran falling tow shrot of the tournament’s first hundred..
England lost six out of eight games to Test nations at the 50 over World Cup and how they perform against West Indies and South Africa will be strong indication of their peace of mind under pressure.
They wait on the fitness of Liam Livingstone who has not trained since hurting his side against Namibia. England confirmed his side is okay but he missed training feeling unwell on Tuesday. If he is fit, they are likely to pick the same XI, if not then Will Jacks comes back into it.
They have plenty of options and Mark Wood will be itching to bowl on the pitch where he took five wickets in a blistering spell in a Test five years ago but pace off, cutters and defensive bowling is probably what is needed rather than pace.
That is if the openers see off Hosein.
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